Will County Democratic Central Committee - News

The mainstream news media tells us immigration reform is dead. And yet those same news outlets remind us almost daily how immigration reform, or lack thereof, impacts our lives economically, culturally and morally.

The truth is that immigration is part of our past and will shape our future as a nation. A close look at the facts shows how.

I recently moderated an immigration reform panel at Compass Church in Naperville. The information shared was insightful and educational.

After Republican Sen. Mark Kirk said Thursday that 429 unaccompanied minors from the Mexican border crisis were in Chicago and urged they undergo criminal background checks, he drew fire today from an immigrant-rights group and Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez of Chicago.

Kirk, an Illinois Republican, said in a news release that the children were in the custody of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department. Kirk’s spokeswoman did not respond to questions about where the children were.

A Homeland Security mandate that requires U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain thousands of people a day costs a fortune and is holding up immigration reform, U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, D-Naperville, said Saturday.

The mandate, known as the detention bed quota, requires ICE to detain 34,000 people each day at a cost of $159 a person, Foster said. The bill to taxpayers runs $5.5 million a day or about $2 billion a year.

New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte stuck her neck out over the weekend, declaring her support for the immigration reform bill that will hit the floor this week. That makes her the first Republican, outside of the bipartisan Gang of Eight that drafted the bill, to endorse the measure.

Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk, where are you?

Kirk's name invariably appears on the short list of moderate Republican senators who could help provide the handful of votes necessary to defeat a filibuster. But he's still uncommitted.